Back to Earth
by no-tomatoes
Summary: The Doctor embarks with Clara on his first adventure since regenerating to the Jovian moon of Ganymede in the 23rd Century, where he helps a brother and sister fix their marooned spacecraft and return home. Set following Series 7 with an AU Twelfth Doctor.
1. Chapter 1

Percy was deeply engrossed in his book; feet up on the console and humming the tune to a song he was listening to while shaving that morning. The book was an old one, an absolute classic; _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_. Percy loved his classic novels and would often read to pass time, and to avoid the wrath of his sister Isadora. At the moment he was re-reading the Harry Potters and very much enjoying them. There was an extensive library on board the _Armstrong_ and Percy liked to balance between reading books he was unfamiliar with and re-reading those he had fallen in love with. Opposite him, separated by the thick window of the cockpit sat the rocky surface of Ganymede; the largest moon of Jupiter. Jupiter was rising over the edge of the moon, but this sight, while magnificent in its own right, was so common to Percy that he didn't even really notice it.

A shrill series of beeps snapped Percy back into reality. He snapped back upright and placed the book on a part of the console that didn't seem to be riddled with important buttons and monitors. A red light on the console was flashing red in sync with the beeping. Percy examined the monitor below the light. The ship's radar system was displayed on the monitor. On the edge of the display there was a faint blue dot, which was growing stronger and moving more towards the centre of the display. At last, thought Percy, they've found us.

He leant forward and spoke into the square microphone that protruded out of the console. "Isadora, Isadora!" he shouted, transmitting to the ship's PA system. "Isadora meet me in the cockpit immediately, there's something coming this way!"

Minutes later Isadora; Percy's twin sister ran through the archway into the _Armstrong_'s cockpit. She was wearing a blue bathrobe and a matching towel over her head. "What's going on?" she asked, excited and anxious at the same time.

"Were you having a bath?" sniggered Percy.

"No," frowned Isadora, "and never mind that, what about the incoming object?"

"Oh yeah," said Percy, leaning forward and pressing different buttons on the console. "It looks like a ship."

"They've finally answered our distress call," said Isadora, her eyes wide with excitement.

"Well, here's hoping," said Percy, "I'll just open the communications channels. This is acting senior officer Percy Darlington of the Earth vessel the _Armstrong_. Do you read me?"

"Acting senior officer?" scoffed Isadora, "who made you senior officer?"

"Me," said Percy, "the one sitting in the chair, the one not wearing a bathrobe."

Isadora's response was cut out by that of the incoming ship's. "_Armstrong _this is the _T-59P_, reading you loud and clear. Are you in trouble?" The voice was hard and serious, and probably one of someone who didn't have time for fun and games.

"Yes _T-59P_, our engines are dead and we've been stranded for nearly three years; Earth time."

"And your crew?"

"Just two, both in good health."

"Standby, I'll be aboard in due time."

"Thankyou _T-59P_. _Armstrong _out."

Percy closed the communications channels and turned to face Isadora. "Well that's it Izzy, we might finally be getting off here." He looked her up and down. "You might want to make that bath a quick one."

Isadora shook her head and walked off. After three years with only Percy to talk to, any company would be good company.

* * *

"So," said the Doctor, walking into the console and grabbing the lapels of his jacket, "what do you think?"  
Clara looked him up and down. His jacket was very smart, and probably tailored. Its lining was not of ordinary silk, but of a predominantly red tartan. Under the jacket he wore a scarf in two different shades of grey. Under this was a white t-shirt bearing what appeared to be a slogan, although Clara could not read it, for it was written in the Doctor's native language of Galifreyan, a language she was unfamiliar with. A pair of faded denim jeans and a black pair of Dr. Martens boots completed the ensemble.  
"Well," she said, unsure on what to make of the Doctor's new ensemble. Mere hours ago he had looked roughly her own age, but dressed like an old fashioned gentleman. Now he looked old enough to be her father and looked a lot more… trendier. She liked the look, but she didn't know whether it would suit the Doctor, primarily because at this moment, she didn't even know what would suit the Doctor. "I think you look really cool." It seemed to be the safest thing to say at that moment.  
"Cool, yes, cool," he said, now rubbing his hands up and down the lapels, "I look cool. Isn't that right Clara?"

Clara looked around the console room, as if there were someone to disagree with the Doctor. "Oh yeah, really cool," she repeated. She had known that the Doctor's regeneration would have changed his appearance and personality, but she was totally oblivious to just how different he would be to the Doctor she knew.

So far he had been acting like a child trying to impress an aunt or uncle they hadn't seen for a long time. They had been examining new potential outfits for the Doctor for the past hour or so, until Clara, growing impatient of the conflicts of what was cool and what wasn't between the pair, decided to wait in the console room while he dressed himself how he saw best.

"Yes, cool," repeated the Doctor for what felt like the millionth time to Clara. "Not like that bow-tie I was wearing. That was so uncool, what was I thinking?"

Clara shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, probably just a phase."

The Doctor clicked his fingers and grinned. "Yep, that's exactly what it was, a phase. Don't you just hate those?" He began pacing the console room. "When you do something for ages and then one day you stop, and then you remember and you go-" The Doctor made a small groan of desperation and buried his face in his palms.

"Oh yeah," said Clara, nodding and remembering many regretful life choices she had made over the years.

The Doctor walked up to Clara and cupped his palms around her chin. "That's what I've always loved about you humans, you're fallible in exactly the same way Timelords are. That's probably why I like spending so much time with you. Now!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands, "where do you want to go?"

"I don't know," said Clara casually, "you choose."

"Alrighty then," said the Doctor. He turned towards the TARDIS's console and froze; his face blank. "I don't know." He turned back to face Clara. "Where do I want to go?"

"What are you asking me for, silly?" she replied, walking around him. "Why not take me to your favourite place?"

The Doctor scrunched up his face in concentration. "My favourite place?" he said, trying to remember. "Oh I know, the Indigo Valleys on Celeste."

"That's your favourite place?" said Clara, "you took me there a few weeks ago and we nearly got eaten."

"Well it's supposed to be fun," huffed the Doctor.

"If you can't chose somewhere I will,"

"No, no, no!" said the Doctor stubbornly. "I've thought of somewhere. Somewhere I've never been before. Jupiter!"

"You've never been to Jupiter?" asked Clara.

"Not in the 23rd Century," said the Doctor in a very matter-of-factly manner.

"Well then scarf boy," said Clara, tugging on his scarf, "you take us to 23rd Century Jupiter.

"Hey, hey, hey," said the Doctor, straightening his scarf. "Leave that alone, this was a birthday present from a good friend."

"You have birthdays?" asked Clara rhetorically as the Doctor began running around the console, flicking switches and pulling levers.

"Oh too many to count, my dear," said the Doctor as the TARDIS began to shake and make the distinctive noise that told the Doctor and Clara they were travelling through time and space, "too many to count."

* * *

Isadora was cupping a mug of hot tea in her hands, eyes fixed on the radar but mind very much elsewhere. For the second time in days there was a series of shrill beeps and she leant forward. Sitting right near the centre of the radar was a dot, brighter and bolder than that of the _T-59P_. What's more, it had appeared out of nowhere, rather than making its way towards the _Armstrong_ as the _T-59P_ or any other spacecraft had. I must be going mad, Isadora thought to herself. Whatever it was out there, it wasn't there a minute ago, I swear. She leant forward to the microphone. "Perce, Perce, you'd better get here now."

* * *

On the surface of Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter, some 500 metres out from where the _Armstrong_ sat, but obscured by a large rock formation, the doors of the TARDIS opened. The Doctor and Clara stood in the doorway, both wearing spacesuits and clutching matching helmets. The Doctor's spacesuit was a distinctive orange, but Clara's was a patchwork of many different colours, all very bright and clashing with one another.

"I never knew you made me a spacesuit, when did you get around to doing that?" Clara asked the Doctor. She had only received the suit minutes before.

"Oh, I did it ages ago," said the Doctor. "I thought it would be handy for you to have one."

"Why all the colours?"

"I wasn't sure what colour was your favourite, so I picked all of them."

"Ah, right-o," said Clara, imagining the Doctor; not this one but the previous one, sewing together different patches of material and scratching his head over what colour would suit her best. She missed that Doctor so much already, with his childish manner and inability to understand perfectly ordinary things. "You know I could have just settled for orange like yours, spacesuits aren't really supposed to be trendy."

"Matching spacesuits," scoffed the Doctor, "what do you think we are; tourists?"

Clara looked around at the barren landscape around her. "Of course we are."

The Doctor smiled. "So we are, it's been so long since I've thought of it like that; tourists."

"I suppose it's all just saving the day to you, isn't it?"

"More often than not," said the Doctor, his smile fading. "Still," he said, clapping his hands, the noise muffled under his gloves, "today can be different. Today we can be tourists. It might not be the prettiest place, but it should be peaceful enough to avoid adventure." He turned to face Clara, his worry beginning to show. "I'm getting old Clara, as much as I'd hate to admit it. Let's just try and have some fun. Now, helmets on!"

The two placed their helmets over their heads and walked off out onto the surface of the moon.

* * *

"What is it?" asked Percy, storming into the cockpit.

"Another UO," said Isadora, "but this one's different."

"How?"

"It just showed up."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it wasn't there one minute, and the next it's nearly on top of us, look!" Isadora pointed at the blip on the radar. "It appeared right there out of nowhere."

Percy looked doubtful. "Are you sure you just didn't miss it?"

"No, I looked at the radar and it was blank like always, so I was sitting back with my tea for a moment, only one moment I swear. Then I heard the radar beeping and it was there, right where it is now."

Percy stroked his chin, "have you tried making contact?"

"Yes but I'm not getting any response. The scanners suggest it's a craft of some kind though."

Percy looked out the cockpit window and bit his lip. "Izzy, I think there's something going on. I mean, we've been stranded here for years and then days after we finally make contact with someone another UO shows up. Whether it appeared out of nowhere or not, that's just weird. And Aurelius never said there would be anyone else coming."

Isadora looked her brother in the eye. "You didn't leave Aurelius on his own did you?"

"I had to, he was busy working and he couldn't just stop to follow me here." Isadora frowned, put down her mug and crossed her arms. "Honestly Isadora, don't look at me like that. Why don't you trust him?"

"I just don't. There's something about him that makes me uneasy."

"Is it because you don't know him?"

"Possibly," admitted Isadora, although the stranger who answered their distress call still gave her a bad vibe whenever they were in the same room.

"You don't trust me either though Izzy, remember that," said Percy, smiling.

She rubbed his shoulder. "That's because you're my brother. I've never trusted you." She smiled too and began to walk out of the cockpit.

"Hold on, where are you going?"

She paused and turned around, "to keep an eye of Aurelius. You keep an eye on that radar and let me know if you see someone approaching."

Percy gave her a mock salute and sat down in the captain's chair, looking out at the surface of the moon for any signs of life.

* * *

The Doctor and Clara walked, hand in hand across the grey, rocky surface of Ganymede. From the TARDIS, they headed straight towards the rock formation blocking the _Armstrong_ from their line of sight. When they reached the formation, they began walking around it, Clara brushing it with her glove. "You know," she said, "if it weren't for the general lack of oxygen, this would be a great place for a picnic."

"If it's a picnic you want Clara Oswald, then a picnic you shall have," said the Doctor. "Once we get onto a suitable planet, of course."

"Of course," said Clara, turning to the Doctor and smiling.

The Doctor smiled back; a fond smile that showed his mind was at ease. "We should have done this sooner."

"Done what, walk on a big grey rock?"

"No, just go for a walk somewhere. I've forgotten how much I enjoyed just exploring."

Clara was about to respond but was cut short as the _Armstrong_ crept out from behind the rock. They stopped and stared at it.

"Speaking of exploring," said the Doctor, "what do you think?" He grinned, and gripping her hand tightly, began walking towards the marooned ship.

"Well," said Clara, "so much for avoiding adventure."

* * *

"Izzy," said Percy over the PA system. "I can see two figures in spacesuits; they're making their way towards the ship.

Isadora walked up to one of the many intercoms situated along the corridors of the _Armstrong_. "Describe them," she said, speaking into the thin metal grille.

"One in an orange suit, the other in one that appears to have quite a few colours," said Percy, leaning against the window and squinting to try and better identify the strangers.

"What airlock do they look like they're making their way towards?" asked Isadora.

"They seem to be coming towards starboard. I'd say Airlock Two, that's the closest."

"Making my way there now," said Isadora, forgetting about Aurelius and making her way towards the ship's second airlock.

When she reached the airlock, Isadora turned on the closed circuit camera situated outside Airlock Two and began watching it on the television screen situated next to the airlock's internal door. She could see the two figures in their almost matching spacesuits walking up to the airlock's external door. The taller of the two, in a plain orange suit, knocked cheerily on the door. The noise boomed through the corridor. Through the low-resolution camera, Isadora could see that under their helmets, they appeared to be human or at least humanoid in appearance. She pressed the button the opened the external door and watched through the internal door as the taller figure stepped into the airlock and helped the shorter one in.

When they were both in safely Isadora shut and locked the external door and began feeding oxygen into the room. When the room was fully pressurised, a green light lit up on the roof of the airlock and the taller figure removed his helmet. He looked like he was in his mid-50's, with greying hair and a few developing wrinkles. The other person removed their helmet shortly after. This one was a girl, about thirty years younger. Maybe his daughter, thought Isadora. She had medium-length brown hair and matching eyes.

Isadora pressed a button on the control panel by the airlock door which allowed communication between the airlock and the corridor. "This is acting senior officer Isadora Darlington, state your name and intention."

"I'm acting senior officer," said Percy, who was listening in on the conversation from the cockpit, "me!"

"Hello," said the man, "I'm the Doctor, and this is Clara. We were just in the neighbourhood and saw your ship, are you stranded?"

"Yes," said Isadora, startled at the apparent relaxation of this 'Doctor character'. "What do you mean you were in the neighbourhood? Doctor who?"

The 'Doctor' turned to Clara and smiled. "We landed on this planet to do a bit of exploring, you know, chill out a bit? And we saw your ship, so we thought we'd explore that too. Have we come at a bit of a bad time?"

Again, Isadora was perplexed by the man's calm and casual manner. "How do you land here? Our radar showed no signs of you coming in to land at all."

"Yes, that'd be right. My ship's pretty quick, a sort of blink-and-you-miss-her sort of thing."

"But- but why didn't you respond when we tried to communicate with you?" Isadora did not understand this man at all.

"Yeah," asked the young girl, "how come we didn't answer?"

"Oh, I turned off the communication channel years ago. I had to, always someone trying to sell you something. Are you going to let us in now? I brought some biscuits."

"Let 'em in Izzy," said Percy over the PA, "they should be fine."

These people were weird, though Isadora, weird but probably not dangerous, and in any case what could two strangers do to her and Percy that was worse than being marooned on a distant moon? No, Percy was right, they would be fine, she told herself firmly, and eyes firmly set on the strangers, Isadora pressed the button that opened the door between the airlock and the corridor.


	2. Chapter 2

"So," said the Doctor, clapping his hands as Isadora showed him and Clara through the corridors of the _Armstrong_, "how long exactly have you been here?"

"We've been stranded for a bit over three years," said Isadora, marching swiftly through the dimly lit corridors. Her brother may have trusted these strangers, but she didn't, and getting them to him was her top priority.

"I see," said the Doctor, looking around at the architecture of the ship. "Standard 23rd Century spacecraft used by early human explorers, am I right?"

"Yes," said Isadora hurriedly.

"I knew that," said the Doctor quietly to Clara, grinning smugly. "And how many of you are there?"

"Just two of us, sort of,"

"What do you mean 'sort of'?

"Well the only crew members left are my brother Percy and I, but a few days ago we had someone answer our distress call." Having reached the cockpit, Isadora stopped and beckoned the Doctor and Clara in. Percy stood up when he saw them walk in and shook the Doctor's hand. "You must be the Doctor," he said, clasping the Doctor's hand firmly with both hands. He turned to Clara. "And you must be Clara," he said, shaking her hand, again with both hands, but with a softer grip. "I'm Percy Darlington, the acting senior officer of this ship."

"I thought she was the acting senior officer," said Clara, looking towards Isadora.

"Yes, that's what she'd like to think," laughed Percy.

Isadora was less amused. "It's nearly time for my watch _captain_," she said bitterly. "Go take these two to the engine room and see if they can help Aurelius."

Percy laughed again and indicated for the Doctor and Clara to leave the cockpit.

* * *

"So," asked the Doctor, "I'll take it this Aurelius is the one who responded to your distress call, yes?"

"Yes that's right," said Percy, guiding them through the system of corridors.

"I suppose he'd have to be, your sister said there were only the two of you here as crew members, unless you happened to have a dog called Aurelius or something, and you left him in charge of the engine room. I had a dog once, he was a robot."

"Don't worry," said Clara to Percy, "he's normally this weird."

"Actually I've taken a funny turn recently," said the Doctor, casting his mind back to his recent regeneration, "if I say something out of place pay me no mind."

"Oh, sure," said Percy, someone confused.

"But enough about that," said the Doctor, "how is it you happen to be stuck out here anyway?"

"Well," began Percy, "there was a larger crew of us, on an exploration mission. We were supposed to just survey the moon and travel back home, but we got hit by a small asteroid and it knocked us off course."

"Damaging the engine in the course of driving the ship onto the surface?" asked the Doctor.

"Along with our long-range communication, they probably think we're all dead back home," said Percy solemnly. "Otherwise they'd have sent someone to help us by now."

"Well three years is a pretty long wait for anything, even tech support," said the Doctor absent-mindedly.

"What about the rest of the crew, where are they?" asked Clara.

"Dead," said Percy, "it wasn't in the crash though. After we crashed our engineers were going to set to work finding out what went wrong with the engines and fixing them. But before that they had to make sure everything else was fine and dandy. It turned out that when the engines packed up, the flight co-ordinator deployed the landing gear, and it was now embedded in the rock. The captain got Izzy, me and a few other technicians to blast the rock away before the engineers began working on the engines. When Izzy and I were on blasting duty, we came back from our shift to find the whole crew dead."

The Doctor stopped walking and reached inside his jacket, gripping his Sonic Screwdriver. "Did you find out what did it?"

"Oh yes," said Percy, and the Doctor pulled his arm out of the jacket and crossed his arms. "Our head chef; Oliver, was a lovely guy, but he was getting on and tended to be a bit forgetful. Our captain came from a big family and insisted on a strong family environment, so we all ate together. Anyway, that day Izzy and I missed out on dinner because we were busy working, and Oliver, some way or another; subjected everyone to food poisoning. Likely he mixed cooked and raw meat or something. I don't know whether you've seen a large group of people in an airtight environment get sick, but it's not fun. When we got back from our blasting, we sat waiting in the airlock, but no one let us in. The sickness had just started affecting people and the captain kept us in the airlock. They had staples and stuff in the airlock chamber so we wouldn't starve or anything and one by one the crew all dropped dead. The last one to die was one of the science officers, and he pre-programmed the airlock to stay locked for another month after he died, to make sure whatever it was had dissipated by the time we were let back in. They gave their lives for us, but since then we've been trapped here."

"Haven't you tried fixing the engines yourself?" asked Clara.

"We're not engineers," said Percy. "We've read every engineering book the library between us several times over, and while we've been able to effectively run the ship, we can't fix the engines. Even Aurelius hasn't had much success, although he's done a lot better than we ever could have."

The Doctor pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver. "Percy, I may be just the man you need, now take us to those engines, it's time to get you back home."

* * *

"Aurelius, Aurelius?" called out Percy upon entering the engine room. "Are you decent?"

A tall figure walked out from behind the engines and presented himself to the Doctor and Clara.

"Aurelius," said Percy, "This is the Doctor and his friend Clara. They've come to help you try and get us off here."

Aurelius sank into a low bow in the Doctor's direction, and then again in Clara's. "Doctor, Clara," he said, straightening up and baring his teeth, which were yellow and slightly crooked. The Doctor returned the gesture and motioned for Clara to do the same. "I am Aurelius Aurelio."

Clara surveyed him. He was tall, maybe six foot two, with short black hair and heavy stubble. He had one of the thickest sets of eyebrows Clara had ever seen and his eyes were pale blue and he seemed to be staring at her, even when facing away from her. His skin was pale, almost milky in colour. He was dressed exclusively in black leather and stood upright, with his hand behind his back.

Aurelius turned to the Doctor. "I didn't catch your last name Doctor, what was it?"

"I don't have one," said the Doctor, "I'm just the Doctor."

"Doctor," he said, pausing. "I feel I should know who you are, should I?"

"Oh I shouldn't think so," said the Doctor, "I'm just a passing traveller."

"Yes," said Aurelius, drifting away.

"Well," said Percy, "I'd best leave you two to it. Clara, would you like to come with me?"

"Sure," said Clara, eager to get away from Aurelius and his ever-watching eyes.

* * *

Percy was escorting Clara through the corridors and elevators of the _Armstrong_. "When we left home," he said, "this was the finest ship for its size out there. I suppose they'd have come up with something better since, and being stuck on a moon for three years is a pretty average way for a ship to spend its days."

"Oh yeah," said Clara, trying to peek through each room they passed.

"What's your ship like?" asked Percy.

"Well," said Clara, thinking before breaking into a smile. "It looks quite small from the outside, but you'd be surprised just how big it feels from the inside."

"That's the hallmark of any good ship," said Percy, "making the most of the space you've got."

"Oh, she does that all right,"

"'She?'"

"Sorry, bad habit the Doctor's got me into. He's always referring to it as a woman. And not just as 'she' and 'her', but he even has nicknames and stuff, and strokes her from time to time."

"It sounds like he loves his craft. Hopefully he's as useful as he is devoted."

"Oh yeah," said Clara, "he'll have you out of here in no time."

"Just our luck that you were around then," said Percy. "It's uncanny isn't it? Three years without any contact and just days after Aurelius arrives, you come here with your ship that according to Isadora just appeared out of nowhere. And you bring along the perfect man to get us out of here. Totally uncanny." Percy stopped walking. He stared at Clara, moving closer and closer. Clara, arms crossed defiantly backed off when she could begin to feel his breath on her face. He straightened up. "Let's see how Isadora's getting on."

Clara followed him towards the cockpit, but she couldn't help but feel things were not as they seemed.

* * *

"Ah, Percy," said Isadora as Percy and Clara walked into the cockpit. "I was just about to ask you, you haven't seen my necklace have you?"

"No, which one?" asked Percy.

"The one with the big Sapphire in the middle and the row of diamonds around it, I swear I had it sitting on my dressing table, but it's not there now."

"When was the last time you definitely saw it?" asked Percy, who had sat down in one of the cockpit's chairs and started playing with some dials on the cockpit's control panel.

"I don't know, maybe this morning? I couldn't say."

Percy stood up and began to walk out, his eyes fixed on Clara, who stared back, somewhat confused.

"Where are you going?" asked Isadora.

"To go and put on some dinner," said Percy, "I thought I might make something special since we have company, but special takes time."

When he had left the room Clara sat in the seat Percy had just left. "I think he thinks I stole your necklace," she said to Isadora.

"Does he now?" asked Isadora.

"I didn't," emphasised Clara, "you can search me if you want."

Isadora laughed. "I'll believe you."

"He was getting pretty antsy on the way here," said Clara, "I don't think he likes me very much."

Isadora turned to face Clara. "He's probably just scared." She put her hand on Clara's knee. "We've had nothing but each other's company for three years. Even if we weren't brother and sister, being stuck in that sort of scenario's going to change how someone sees the world. Having three new people suddenly come into his life unannounced is a pretty big thing, especially when they're all as suspicious as you are." She removed her hand and began rubbing the back of her neck. "I mean, you only have to look at Aurelius to get a bad vibe from him, and having to work and interact with the guy isn't much better. And then there's you and the Doctor. I still don't know how you got here, and it'll probably keep me up all night."

"So you don't trust us then?" asked Clara, one eyebrow raised.

"No," said Isadora, leaning in, "but then I trust Aurelius even less. Percy's been trying to look at the situation in a very open-eyed manner, but you can see, or at least I can see the cracks beginning to form. I don't know who you are Clara, but we have our reasons for our doubts, and I just hope it's paranoia, because even though we've been away from home so many years, we've still got hope left, and I'm not prepared to see it slip away from our fingers by a group of strangers we've let into this ship. I'd sooner die than let them win."

* * *

"So," said the Doctor, examining the _Armstrong_'s engines with his Sonic Screwdriver. "What were you doing when you answered the distress call? I mean, Ganymede's not exactly the typical holiday destination."

"I could ask you the same thing," muttered Aurelius, who was wiping his hands on a dirty piece of cloth. The Doctor could see his long, pointy fingernails as he did so.

"Clara and I are travellers. We go all over the place, but more often than not we're based in Earth."

"I see, and you're from Earth, are you?" Aurelius was not the chattiest man the Doctor had ever met, but despite his dark and ominous appearance, he was not anti-social, although it was clear he was the sort of traveller that kept his cards close to his chest.

"Clara is, I'm not," said the Doctor, pacing around one of the engines. "What about you?"

"I'm from Earth, and what about you Doctor, where are you from?"

The Doctor paused and put down his screwdriver. "It's from a long way away, you'd never have heard of it."

Aurelius stood up. "Try me," he said flatly.

The Doctor could feel the man's eyes on his face. It was little use trying to tell a lie to a man like him. "It's a place far away called Gallifrey," said the Doctor, his thoughts casting away from Aurelius and fixing the _Armstrong_ and instead thinking of his lost home.

Aurelius' stare did not wane. "Never heard of it," he said after a pause of what felt like years, and he returned to examining the engines.

The Doctor broke off as soon as Aurelius' back was turned. He grabbed his screwdriver and held it up above his head, examining it. "Well Aurelius Aurelio, I think I'm just about ready to start," he called out.

Any response Aurelius may or may not have made was cut short by the sound of Isadora's voice over the PA. "Doctor, Aurelius," she said, "we were just about to have dinner if you'd care to join us? We're in the bar on Floor 2."

The Doctor walked over to the control panel by the entrance to the engine room. He looked at Aurelius, who nodded. The Doctor pressed the intercom button on the panel and spoke into the metal grille at the top of the panel. "We'd be delighted Isadora, see you soon."

"Good," said Aurelius, standing up and brushing dirt and dust off his leathers. "I'm about hungry enough to kill." He smiled a rotten, toothy smile at the Doctor, who didn't smile back.

The Doctor stood by the door and waited for him to leave, keeping one firm eye on the intimidating stranger all the way to the bar.

* * *

At one of the tables scattered across the bar floor, the Doctor sat next to Clara, opposite Aurelius and Isadora, who didn't look too happy at her present company. Clara wasn't too impressed either, aside from having to sit directly opposite Aurelius and his creepy eyes, the Doctor had also put on a skinny black tie he claimed to have found in his jacket pocket. Having no collar to tie it around, it hung loose below his neck. "What, what did I do?" he asked, feeling her discomfort.

"Why are you wearing a tie?" she asked, her nose scrunched up.

"To look more formal," he replied as if it were the most obvious answer there was.

"It might be more formal if you happened to be wearing a shirt," she said, "not that daggy thing."

"Daggy?" he said, ruffling the white t-shirt. I'll have you know if I was wearing this back home, they'd think I look pretty trendy."

"What does it even say then?" she asked, turning towards him and indicating the Gallifreyan text across the body of the t-shirt.

"This?" he asked, "This is a very funny joke on Gallifrey."

"What's it mean?"

Whatever it meant, Clara never found out, as at that moment the Doctor was cut off by the arrival of Percy. Wearing an apron that read 'Licence to Grill' and carrying a tray bearing five plates of roast beef, Percy placed a plate in front of his four diners and then placed the fifth at the head of the table, next to Isadora and the Doctor.

"It had better be funnier than that apron," said Clara and she and the Doctor laughed quietly as Percy sat down.

"Well, tuck in everybody," said Percy, smiling and reaching for his knife and fork.

"So Isadora," said the Doctor, carefully slicing his roast beef into tiny cubes and skewering them on each of his fork's prongs while Clara watched him angrily and embarrassedly, "just how many crew members did this ship hold before the accident, if you don't mind me asking?"

"There were about forty of us," said Isadora, "from all around the world. The captain was Korean, the navigation officer was South African, the cook was from New Zealand and most of our fellow techies were from North America. Aside from Percy and I there were only two others from Britain."

"And to think," said the Doctor to Clara, "your lot objected to having Slitheen in parliament. Actually what am I thinking of?" he said, "I objected to that. Wow that was ages ago." The Doctor trailed off and Clara turned her attention to Isadora. "Was this ship the first one to reach Jupiter?"

"With life on board yes," said Isadora, "but we were having issues with the long-range communications link between us and Earth, so even if they have sent other ships since we left, they wouldn't have a clue where we are, and probably never bothered checking the emergency frequencies. There wouldn't be much point, seeing as though it's only us out there."

The Doctor glared at Aurelius. Aurelius had told the Doctor he was from Earth, but the Doctor could smell a rat. He had eyed Aurelius' spacecraft through one of the ship's windows on the way to dinner, and it was of no Earth design, even from a time beyond the 23rd Century. Isadora and Percy wouldn't have known that, he reflected, and getting them off this moon and away from this shady stranger suddenly seemed more important than ever, no matter what intentions he had. He stood up.

"Where are you going Doctor?" asked Clara.

"To fix the engines," he said, giving her a look that said that they were not in perfect safety. "Thank you for a great meal Percy, but I just can't eat any more."

"But you haven't touched your salad," said Aurelius, his voice brooding and sending shivers down the Doctor's spine.

"If I told you half the things I knew about salad," said the Doctor, staring Aurelius in his cold eyes, "you'd probably give up eating, cold turkey." He made the comment light-heartedly so as to not draw attention from Percy or Isadora, but his stare told Aurelius otherwise.

"I think I might help you with the engines Doctor," said Clara, also standing up.

"How long do you reckon it'll take you Doctor?" said Percy relaxedly, dabbing the corner of his mouth with a napkin.

"Ooh, maybe an hour?" said the Doctor.

"Wait until the morrow," said Percy calmly. "If you get it fixed now we'll probably only have time for a few hour's flight before we have to call it quits for the night. The autopilot's busted and Izzy and I will have to work shifts at piloting her back home. I'd rather we both had a decent rest before setting off."

"I can fix the autopilot for you too," said the Doctor, waving his Sonic Screwdriver.

"Oh no, you've done too much for us already Doctor," said Percy. "You too Aurelius, spend one more night on our company, please."

Wishing to avoid any tensions or feelings of unease, the Doctor sat back down and Clara followed suit. "But don't think I'm going to finish this salad," said the Doctor to polite laughter from Percy and Isadora, but he felt dreadfully nervous inside. So much for avoiding adventure indeed, he reflected.

* * *

That night Percy and Isadora slept in their own cabins, with Aurelius in a third and the Doctor and Clara sharing a fourth.

"Why do we have to share?" asked Clara, although she knew the answer as soon as she'd asked the question.

"Because I don't trust Aurelius one little bit," said the Doctor, locking the door with his screwdriver.

"That's ok, neither do Percy and Isadora."

"I trust him less, they don't know what I know."

"They don't trust us either,"

"I wouldn't trust us either, but I know us, I don't know him."

"Fair enough," said Clara.

When Clara was settling into her bed, the Doctor rose from his and made his way to the door. Taking off his boots, he unlocked the door and began to open it.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To lock some doors," said the Doctor, flipping the screwdriver and walking outside.

Locking the door once it was shut, the Doctor quietly made his way through the ship. Finding Isadora's cabin, he pressed his ear to the door. When he could hear she was asleep, he locked the door, covering as much of the screwdriver as he could with his palm to muffle the noise it made. He did the same to Percy's cabin, but left Aurelius' untouched. He also locked the door to the engine room, and when done, made his way back to his own cabin stealthily. When inside he locked the door once more and tried his best to get to sleep without clouding his mind with the worry of what was yet to come.


	3. Chapter 3

After several hours of dreamless sleep, the Doctor rose and made his way out of the room, ever careful not to wake the still asleep Clara. He made his way to Aurelius' room first, and when he could hear the stranger twisting and turning in his sheets, he walked away, unlocking the doors to Percy and Isadora's rooms. When that was done, he made his way to the engine room and began working, humming cheerfully and not stopping until he was satisfied the engines were in working order.

When he reached the bar where everyone had eaten the night before, he saw Percy and Clara talking to one another.

"You must get very lonely out here," said Clara, her hands cupped around a large mug of steaming hot tea.

"Oh I do," said Percy, "and so does Isadora, but we still have each other. You know what they say, two's company,"

"Three's a crowd," finished the Doctor.

"'Morning Doctor," said Percy, "what have you been up to, work?"

"Yes," said the Doctor, pausing briefly. "I've just finished working on the engines. Whenever you're ready we'll just give them a test and then you should be ready to kiss this place goodbye."

"That's wonderful," said Clara. She turned to Percy, "you'll be able to get back to Earth."

"What's wonderful?" asked Isadora, who had just walked into the bar with a tray of bacon and eggs.

"The Doctor's fixed the engines," said Percy, "we're finally going to go home." Clara could see the look of absolute jubilation on his face and looked at the Doctor, who was smiling back at her fondly. He flipped his Sonic Screwdriver and placed it in one of the outside pockets of his jacket.

Isadora quickly placed the tray of food on the table and clasped her cheeks. "Oh, oh, oh Doctor, thank you so much," she said, flinging herself at him and embracing him tightly.

The Doctor, unsure of how to handle the situation and with his arms pinned to his sides by Isadora's strong hug, attempted to pat her on the back. "Yes, we can give them a test whenever suits."

Isadora broke apart from him. A few tears were forming in the corners of her eyes. "Can I get you a drink?"

"Yes, could I please have a coffee? Black," he added before making his way to the table and helping himself to some eggs and bacon.

"Don't tell me," said Percy, who was also drinking a mug of tea. "you know things about tea that would make all our hairs stand on end?"

"No," said the Doctor, who was separating the yolk from the whites of his egg, "I just prefer coffee."

"How are you feeling this morning Doctor?" asked Clara, "still a bit off colour?"

"Not a bit of it, fresh as a daisy, and very keen to make the most of today."

"Where's Aurelius?" asked Clara, "it'd probably be a good idea to wake him before we try and start the ship off."

"Yes, he was still in his room when I made my way down here, but he's awake."

"You checked on him?" asked Percy, "whatever for?"

The Doctor leaned forward and chose his words carefully. "I didn't want to say anything last night so as to avoid panic, but I don't think Aurelius is who he says he is. I was being cautious, for your benefit as much as anything else."

Isadora walked into the bar with the Doctor's coffee. "Best not say anything to her," whispered the Doctor to Percy and Clara, not until we're all off this rock."

Percy nodded in agreement and as Isadora gave the Doctor his coffee and sat down, they resumed normal conversation.

"So Doctor," said Isadora, "what is it that you and Clara do? You never said."

"No," said the Doctor, pausing again, "we're travellers. I pilot our ship to wherever we want to go, and then we explore until we've had enough and then we travel back to the ship and do it all over again."

"And how long have you been doing that?"

"Ooh, longer than I'd care to remember," said the Doctor, smiling at Clara.

"That must be wonderful," said Percy, "just travelling around without any cares."

"Oh it's wonderful alright," said the Doctor, "but it's never as easy as it sounds."

"I can imagine," said Isadora dreamily, "all that time alone with just the two of you between places, must drive you mad. It certainly drives us mad."

"Oh no, our ship's quite quick, travelling's as quick as it gets. It's just that we never end up just exploring, things always get complicated." The Doctor took a sip of his coffee. It was scalding hot and he slammed the mug down on the table, a dribble of coffee spilling over the edge.

"Oh sorry Doctor, did I make it a bit too hot?" asked Isadora.

"No, no, it was my fault, silly of me," said the Doctor. His tongue was still burning. "May I fetch a glass of water?"

"Sure," said Percy, "help yourself, there are glasses under the bar and there's plenty of water in the fridge.

* * *

The Doctor stood up and walked to the bar, pouring himself a chilled glass of water. On his way back to the table he felt something brush past him. Aurelius had just entered the room and was standing at the end of the table.

"Aurelius, have a seat," said Isadora cheerily.

"No thank you," said the dark stranger as the Doctor returned to his seat. "You're in a good mood this morning Miss Darlington. I'll take it our good friend the Doctor has been making good on his promise to mend the engines."

"Yes," said the Doctor, "all we need is to run a final test and then Percy and Isadora here will be ready to get back home."

"Please, eat something," said Isadora, indicating towards the remaining food. "We're not going to send you back to your ship on an empty stomach."

"You could say that," said Aurelius, and Percy and Clara felt knots form in their stomachs. The Doctor glared at Aurelius. "I was up last night thinking Doctor, about that talk you and I had. You see, the name of your homeworld, Gallifrey, well it stirred up some old memories."

Isadora could feel the rising tension in the room and like Percy and Clara, barely dared to breathe as Aurelius continued talking. "I had lived my life in an ordinary fashion, worked, laughed and sang with my friends, unaware of Gallifrey or anyone who called it home. I was married; I had children and loved them like you couldn't believe. Then one day everything changed. A band of strangers arrived on my planet. They called themselves Timelords, does the name sounds familiar Doctor?"

The Doctor did not reply, but his stare told Aurelius all he needed to know. "I thought as much. They too, were from Gallifrey. It seems they were not as benevolent as you appear to be, Doctor. They used our planet for their own benefit, taking as they saw fit. And then, not long after, another race appeared; one even more despicable. You know who I'm referring to, don't you Doctor?"

"The Daleks," mouthed the Doctor, and both of his hearts sank.

"My planet, my peaceful planet, who had no business with Timelords or Daleks or any other great warrior race, was suddenly at the centre front of war. Mutually assured destruction, you might say? I tried to get my family out, but I failed. I failed and I've never once had a moment where I haven't been reminded of it. I was not born a warrior Doctor, but your people turned me into one." Tears started seeping from Aurelius' eyes, but his intense stare did not wane. "For all I know, I may be the last of my kind, and when I accepted this conclusion, I reached another; that there is no justice out there, only power. That's what I've done since those dark days, seek power. I steal, I kill and I destroy. Nothing stands in my way.

"I find a ship, stuck on a moon in a distant system," continued Aurelius. "Oh great, I think to myself, here's another chance to nab myself a better craft in which to travel and conquer. Maybe find some valuables. I find these two weak humans and their primitive craft, badly damaged. I'd taken all I wanted from them and was just about to give up, kill them and move on when you arrived. A man from Gallifrey, the sort of man I had dreamt about for years, and possibly a Timelord."

"The last Timelord," said the Doctor, his face stony and determined.

"The last Timelord," snarled Aurelius, "the last demon I have left to conquer."

"Then you and I both have something to fight for," said the Doctor, not budging an inch.

"That is maybe Doctor, but what have my people ever done to you?" Aurelius produced a ray gun and pointed it directly at the Doctor. "All's well that ends well Doctor."

"Run!" shouted the Doctor, flinging his mug of coffee at Aurelius. As the porcelain shattered on his forehead and scalding coffee ran down his face, Aurelius fired his ray gun, missing the Doctor by inches.

Percy, Isadora and Clara were already up on their feet and as Aurelius seized his burning face in pain, the Doctor followed them out of the bar, both hearts pounding as the adrenaline flowed through his system.

* * *

Percy ran through the corridors of the _Armstrong_, taking turns left and right with no rhythm or pattern, hoping to lose Aurelius and buy enough time to find a way out of the current situation. Hot on his heels were Clara, Isadora and the Doctor, often skidding on the floor to slow down as Percy decided on a fresh direction to run in. Whenever they saw a lift shaft, Percy would try and call for a lift, if one was on a close enough floor to them, and then travel up or down to another part of the ship while allowing everyone for a chance to regain their strength. The Doctor and Clara were faring well, being used to having to avoid people intent on causing them serious harm, but Percy and Isadora had been conditioned to three years with little to no exercise, and after mere minutes, Percy stopped dread in his track, unable to move any more.

"Percy", said Isadora, sweat dripping from her brow, "don't stop!"

"I can't go on," said Percy, who was bent over, coughing. "Best just hide near here."

Percy had chosen to stop just outside a random door and still spluttering, he opened it. Isadora, coughing and wheezing, but not as severely as her brother, staggered inside, followed by Clara and the Doctor. When the Doctor had made his way inside, Percy looked both ways for Aurelius, who was nowhere to be seen, before walking inside the room, punching in the pin code on the back of the door which locked them safely inside, before collapsing on the floor.

Isadora was panting heavily, but remained on her feet. "Oh yeah Izzy," she mocked, "I'll start going to the gym tomorrow, shed a few pounds and keep myself fit." Percy glared at her, "that was two years ago Perc," she continued, "what would you have done if he had found us?"

"Oh that's rich," snapped Percy, "we both know you only went to the gym because you had a crush on that virtual personal trainer. It's not like you ever did any running."

"Shut up," said Isadora, embarrassed and angry, "at least I knew where the gym was!"

"Hush now," said the Doctor, standing between the two siblings, "I don't want Aurelius to find us, not until we know what we're doing."

"We'll be here a while," put in Clara, and all the tension lifted as the four of them all started laughing.

"Clara Oswald," said the Doctor to himself, "always our saving grace."

* * *

"Can Aurelius break through that door if he wanted?" asked Clara, sitting on a chair in the corner of the room, which appeared to be an office of some form.

"If he can't crack the code, it'd only take a few strong hits from a battering ram or something to knock it down," said Isadora, wiping her brow with a tea towel.

"How big's the code?"

"Only five digits," said Percy, sitting on the desk.

"Yes," said the Doctor, who was playing with a Newton's Cradle model on the desk at the back of the room, "I think that while we're in here, we have a good chance of fazing Aurelius. Picture things from his perspective; we could be in any part of the ship. Even if he decides we're not still running about the corridors, he's still got plenty of doors and floors to search for. In that sense, we've got time on our side, but we can't hide here forever. And even if he never comes here, there's no telling what he could get up to with free running of the ship. I've seen millions upon billions of men all as desperate as him, and I can tell you right now that there's no telling how far he'll go to get rid of me. This isn't my ship, it's an unfamiliar craft to me and as such, I don't have any clue what we have at our disposal to try and escape him, but Percy and Isadora, if you have any ideas, any at all, sooner rather than later would be preferable."

Percy clicked his tongue, thinking. "Isadora," he said, "check that cupboard," motioning towards a cupboard behind Isadora.

"Whatever you say, _acting senior officer_," mocked Isadora. She opened the cupboard and peered inside. "Percy, I take it back," she said, a strong hint of optimism in her voice, "I think we might be in luck."

She turned back to face Clara. "Catch," she said, throwing a ray gun at her. Clara was taken by surprise, but managed to grab the gun mid-air, before turning white and placing it quickly on the arm of her chair. Isadora threw a second gun to Percy, who caught it and quickly began posing with it, as though Aurelius had materialised in the room in various different locations.

"Hey Doctor," said Isadora, before throwing a third gun at the Doctor. He caught it with greater confidence than Clara, but held it by the butt, staring at it as though it were a foreign object.

"Oh not guns, why did it have to be guns?" complained the Doctor. "I can't stand guns, ask someone who knows me what I hate and do you know what they'd say?"

"Doctor, it's guns or nothing," said Isadora.

"I have my screwdriver," he said defiantly.

"I hardly think a magic screwdriver's going to be a match for an avenging dark scary man,"

"It's more than just magic," countered the Doctor.

"Suit yourself, but don't come crying to me when Aurelius turns you into goo. He's armed and we should be too," said Isadora, holstering her own gun down the front of her pants. The Doctor gave a gasp of desperation. "Relax, I've got the safety on, I'm not stupid."

"Remember Moritz Schultz?" laughed Percy, "he didn't care for his safety catch if I recall."

"He didn't really care for much at all after that day," said Isadora, remembering.

"Safety catch or not, I completely object to using lethal weapons against anyone or anything," said the Doctor, his arms crossed.

"We can programme them to stun only," said Percy, still posing. "Surely you can't object to disarming him?" He made a few quick draws in the direction of various objects across the room, including the Doctor.

"Don't point that agent of evil at me!" shouted the Doctor.

* * *

Begrudgingly, the Doctor, armed with his non-lethal ray gun, followed Percy, Isadora and Clara out of the room; Percy leading the pack, posing at every corner and door just in case Aurelius was waiting in the shadows for them. Isadora was behind him, gun firmly in her palms, but without the flashy manoeuvres her brother was demonstrating. Clara had her gun pointed at the floor, and she held it without the confidence of the Darlingtons. The Doctor held his by the butt, and when he walked past one of the _Armstrong_'s rubbish chutes, was quick to drop the gun down through to the trash compacter at the bottom of the ship, and reared the pack very much unarmed.

The Doctor's prediction about time being on their side had been very much an accurate one. The ship's corridors had proven to be the perfect labyrinth, and Percy, still at the front of the pack and still very much alert, had had absolutely no indications of where Aurelius was. The Doctor likewise was not having much success at the back.

"Where's your gun?" whispered Clara, upon looking back at him and noticing his idle hands.

"I threw it away," he whispered back, "guns are nasty."

"Well you shouldn't be at the back then," she said as she tried to walk past him. He grabbed her gun-free hand.

"No Clara, I can't allow it. You're too precious to me. Stay in the middle where it's safer."

Their eyes locked, his aging grey eyes staring straight at her youthful brown ones. She was just about to rebut him when Percy stopped moving. "What are you two doing back there?" he asked,

"Percy," said the Doctor, "lad, I've had an idea. Best we make our way to the cockpit. We can hide in there and set up a good defensive position, and surely there are some gizmos on the control panel to make our good friend Aurelius come out of the shadows if he still won't show his face."

Percy nodded in agreement and led the way, hoping the Doctor was right.

* * *

As the group passed one of the airlocks, Percy could hear footsteps, big clomping footsteps that didn't match the feet of anyone friendly. "Shh, in here," he whispered firmly, pushing Clara, the Doctor and Isadora into an unlocked room directly opposite the airlock. He made his way into the room just as Aurelius entered the corridor. Percy held the door of the room ajar, peering through with one eye and with the barrel of the gun sitting between door and doorframe at chest height. Everyone could hear Aurelius' footsteps getting closer. He stopped just outside the door, and Percy suddenly became aware of how loudly they had all been breathing. Aurelius turned to face the door. "I've got you now," he smiled.

"Not on my watch," said Percy, firing the gun. It struck Aurelius in the arm. Groaning in pain, he dropped his own gun and clutched his arm. Percy flung the door open and pushed Aurelius against the wall. The dark man couldn't fight back, the pain in his arm still so great it was immobilising him. Percy opened the airlock chamber and pushed Aurelius in. He fell onto the floor, writhing in pain and Percy walked back, locking the door. He was about to eject the defenceless Aurelius onto the surface of the moon when the Doctor interjected.

"No," he called, walking out of the room and into the corridor. Percy moved aside as the Doctor walked right up to the window of the airlock chamber, staring at Aurelius as he began to recover from the ray gun's stunning blast. "Leave him to me."


	4. Chapter 4

Aurelius looked up and examined his surroundings. The window behind him showed the black emptiness of space, hanging over Ganymede and her mother planet. Through the other window stood the Timelord, the one who called himself the Doctor, looking down on him like a parent would over a disobedient child. Aurelius Aurelio was not a disobedient child, at least not anymore, and rose from the cold hard floor of the _Armstrong_'s seventh airlock chamber and stood right by the window, staring into the Doctor's eyes. So this was it, he thought as his breath slowly fogged the glass; the end of my people. Aurelius was not about to cower however, and his gaze into the Doctor's eyes did not wane. He took a step back and the window began to clear itself.

"What happened to you Aurelius?" asked the Doctor. "Your quarrel was with my people, why turn to piracy?"

"I told you Doctor, there was no justice anymore. Not to me."

"So having your entire race destroyed made it ok for you to hurt others?"

"No," smiled Aurelius, "it was just a fun way to pass the time until I met you."

The Doctor looked disgusted. "Is that how you want the last of your people to be remembered, as a thieving, murdering renegade?"

"Well," said Aurelius, "how do you want to be remembered Doctor; as a holier-than-thou hero of time and space trying to right his people's wrongs?"

When the Doctor didn't respond Aurelius shouted out to Isadora. "I suppose I might as well apologize to you now human for stealing your necklace. It was very pretty; I guess I just couldn't help myself."

"Just like how you couldn't help trying to kill us all?" asked Percy, standing to the side of the airlock.

"Something like that," laughed Aurelius. "I must admit you put up a greater challenge than I'd have thought, no thanks to your new best friend the Doctor for that. It seems I finally met my match."

"Oh no," said the Doctor, "You're not a match for me, not even close."

"So Timelord," said Aurelius "is this how it was always going to end?"

"No," said the Doctor plainly.

"Oh come on Doctor, don't fool yourself. You said it yourself; we're both the last of our kind. One of our kind was going to become extinct today. For a moment I thought I had you. Now it seems you have me."

"Yes," said the Doctor, "but that doesn't mean this is the end."

This remark took Aurelius by surprise. "Please elaborate Doctor, I didn't believe it was in the nature of the average Timlord to be forgiving."

The Doctor moved even closer to the glass. "There are two things you should know about me Aurelius Aurelio, and you'd best make sure to remember them. Firstly, I never was, and never will be an _average_ Timelord. Secondly, who says I'll be forgiving?"

"Should I just flush myself out then and safe you the effort of hiding behind your fancy talks and upper morals then Doctor?" snarled Aurelius, no hint of anything other than anger in his voice. "At least I'll have the luxury of knowing you for who you really are, a coward."

"I'm not going to stop you from ejecting yourself," said the Doctor calmly, "if that's how you want to see your race end, but please, don't insult me. I know what I am, and it's something I'll have to live with for the rest of my life. I said I was never an average Timelord. I stand by that. As much as I know who I am, I know who they are, just as you do. They were a murderous, vile race, drunk on power and it was that which caused their demise. I cannot condone anything they did during the Time War. I have absolutely no doubts they and the Daleks destroyed your race. You weren't alone in suffering that fate. In truth, what they did was so much worse than just the destruction of worlds and civilisations. What they did changed history and threatened the safety of time itself. And I did nothing to stop them. Rather I joined in." The Doctor had raised his voice. "I joined in in their futile war. I was too blind, maybe too proud to find a way around the fighting. You might think the Time War's over, but it isn't, not by a long stretch. Just when I think it's all over, something will happen and I'll be fighting again, and always emerging the sole victor in an impossible war. There's only been one thing to separate me from Daleks and Timelords alike, and that is my ability to love and to think of others. That's why I kept fighting, all those years, both before, and during the war, because I had something to fight for." The Doctor was shouting now. "And if all that stupid fighting and needless death at my hands made me a coward, then a coward I'll be until the day I die! That's something I'll have to live with. Can you say the same for yourself Aurelius? I've suffered a fate worse than being the last of my kind, I've been the one that's killed off species, including my own."

There was a great silence. Clara was in tears and looking at the Doctor helplessly. Isadora and Percy too were crying, and were comforting each other. All three were trying to avoid the Doctor's attention as he stood there, shaking but still very much focused on Aurelius.

Aurelius studied the Doctor; the veins bulging out of his forehead, now red and hard. The Doctor was shivering and snorting with raw emotion. "So Doctor, what exactly are you going to do to me?"

"I'm going to do something no other Timelord would have done," said the Doctor, composing himself. "I'm going to give you a second chance." The Doctor looked around to Clara, Isadora and Percy, who were also beginning to calm down. "I'm not a warrior anymore. No one need die today."

"Oh Doctor," smiled Aurelius," you couldn't be more wrong." With one quick movement Aurelius pulled the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver out of his pocket and pointed it at the airlock's internal door, activating one of the screwdriver's many functions. The door flung open, knocking the Doctor off his feet. A second wave of the screwdriver activated one of the ship's fire extinguishers, located right by the airlock door. Thick, cloudy smoke from the mouldy old extinguisher poured out across the corridor. Aurelius made to run out on the haze while the others were still disorientated. A quick karate chop from Isadora as Aurelius caused him to drop the screwdriver, but it did not halt him as he continued running away while everyone else coughed, blinded by the smoke.

* * *

Still coughing as the smoke began to lift; Percy stood up and pressed some buttons on the control panel by the airlock door. This activated one of the ship's air vents, and the remaining smoke was quickly vacuumed up to the roof and the corridors became clear and breathable again. The Doctor, still on the floor, rolled over to where his Sonic Screwdriver lay and picked it up.

"So let me get this straight Doctor," said Clara, "you knew well in advance that Aurelius was a risk to us all, and yet you failed to realise him pickpocketing you?"

"Navy blue Clara," exclaimed the Doctor, "are you seriously suggesting I can't be allowed to experience moments of fallibility? I never made a big deal of it that time you made the mistake of feeding that baby Hawardin Plant a chocolate bar, and that damn nearly bit my head off."

"He could have killed us!"

"So me losing my head to a seven foot carnivorous plant is different from being quickly killed by a psychotic space pirate?"

"Look," said Isadora, trying to break up the argument. "He didn't kill us, and now we have the upper hand."

"How do we have the upper hand?" asked Percy.

"He left his gun behind," said Isadora, picking up the gun. The Doctor flinched.

"But what about all those other guns you have lying around the place?" asked the Doctor.

"He'd have to break into a room with one first," said Percy, "and there were only a few personnel permitted to carry them. Most of the guns were probably in the room where we found ours. If Aurelius wants to find himself a new gun he's more that welcome to look, but he'll waste plenty of time doing so, and we have the upper hand now. Let's go hunting."

"Here Doctor," said Isadora, handing the Doctor Aurelius' gun. "You can take this one."

The Doctor waited until everyone else had begun walking off and placed the gun inside the airlock, flushing it out onto the surface of the moon.

* * *

Coming to a junction of corridors, Percy halted the group. "I think we should split up," he announced.

"What, so Aurelius can pick us all off one by one?" frowned Isadora.

"No, we'll work in pairs," said Percy. "The ship's too big and even if he's supposedly defenceless, he's still a threat to us and to the ship. If we split into pairs we should be able to find him twice as quickly, and I for one do not want him on the ship a minute longer."

"He's right," said the Doctor. "I've seen him working on the engines and he's no fool. The sooner we can get him out of here the better." The Doctor began to move towards Clara.

"No Doctor," said Percy, and the Doctor stopped. "I'll go with Clara. You can go with Isadora."

The Doctor was in no position to argue, and neither was Clara, so while Isadora and the Doctor continued ahead the corridor, Percy and Clara took a right turn.

"You'll forgive me Clara," said Percy as he led the way, "but right now I can't say I trust you or the Doctor. If I were him I'd have flushed Aurelius straight into space while I had the chance. How he handled that situation didn't exactly do wonders for my confidence in him."

"If you don't trust us," asked Clara, "why keep us apart? I could very easily fry your brains with this ray gun any time you so much as looked the other way."

"I can see the Doctor cares for you a great deal. I don't want you and him running off back to your ship and leaving us for dead. Better to keep you apart so he has to help us. Do you think he'd ever leave you?"

"No," said Clara defiantly, but inside she wasn't completely sure she was giving the right answer.

"Neither do I, but I don't want to take a chance and hope he doesn't desert Izzy and I. We've been through far too much to be let down like that."

"He wouldn't, I know he wouldn't," said Clara, even less sure, and she could tell Percy saw the worry in her face as she said it. Not wishing to pursue the subject any further, she pointed ahead. "Where are we going?"

"To the cockpit, we thought that's where he was headed before, and now he's running, not hiding, it seems sense to hide there where he can cause more damage."

* * *

"Do you like jelly?" asked the Doctor.

"What?"

"Do you like jelly?"

Isadora was taken aback by the question, but didn't refrain from answering. "It's, er- it's alright I suppose. Why do you ask?"

"_When_ we get out of this mess, I'll make you and Percy a big bowl of jelly. Did you know in certain societies there are great periods of festivity where people eat nothing but jelly?"

"No, no I didn't,"

"Well you do now. I reckon a big jelly dinner should be just what we need. I don't think Percy trusts me."

"Sure he does," said Isadora unconvincingly, "he was the first to let you onto the ship, he cooked dinner for you, gave you a bed for the night and trusted you and Clara with weapons you could have easily used against us. I notice you've misplaced yours again."

"Yes but I have my screwdriver back," said the Doctor, waving it cheerily.

"You can think what you like Doctor, but I trust you, and so does Percy."

"Do you know what I think Isadora Darlington? I think you're a worse liar than I am. Sure, Percy's been acting the gallant host, but he's beginning to sow his seeds of doubt now, publically. Am I right?"

There was no getting past this man, thought Isadora. "We bicker and banter about who's the acting senior officer now that everyone else is gone. That's natural, we're brother and sister and we're also the only company we've had for three years, so we were bound to end up having stupid arguments anyway, but Percy's always been the one who acts like he's captain. He started out doing it for fun in the beginning, just to pass time. You know, sitting in his chair the cockpit pressing all the shiny buttons and using the PA system to make announcements even when I'm sitting right next to him and there's no one else there. But then time kept going on and on, and he gradually stopped becoming someone who pretended he was captain to someone who thought he was captain. I'm not going to blame him, we've both had our share of personal problems while we've been stuck here, trying to face the loneliness every day, but it's still turned him into something he's not. He tries to act the brave, forgiving captain, you should have even heard him talking about Aurelius before you showed up, but underneath he's even more sceptical than me."

"I've had years of travelling on my own too," said the Doctor, "and I know just how much it can change who you are. That's why I'm going to promise right now that I will get you off this rock and back home safely. You both deserve that, and I may have only just met you, but based purely on the way you've composed yourself, I can tell you right now, I am so proud of you."

"Thank you Doctor," said Isadora, a smile spreading across her face. "But there's one thing I just have to ask."

"Fire away my dear," said the Doctor, "or rather, don't," he added, pointing at her gun, still held tightly in her hand.

"You said you were a terrible liar." The Doctor looked at her seriously, knowing what she was going to ask him. "But did you mean what you said to Aurelius, about your people and the war you were in?"

"Yes," said the Doctor, "yes I did. There are some things I just can't lie about, not anymore. Now!" he shouted, clapping his hands and grabbing his lapels. "Let's go and find Aurelius so we can get you out of here."

* * *

Percy and Clara continued to make their way through the corridors of the _Armstrong_. Percy held Clara's hand and confidently led the way. The journey to and from the cockpit, no matter where he was on the ship, was one he had made too many times to count over the past three years, and he knew the way by instinct. So much so that when they were perhaps only a minute or two from their destination, Percy saw something out of the corner of his eye that made him stop. Clara, who was still moving at a decent pace to avoid Percy pulling her arm out of its socket by his excitement to get to the cockpit, nearly ran into the back of him. "What is it?" she asked, "why have we stopped?"

He held a finger to her lips. "Shh," he said, inspecting an open door. On the other side of the frame the door lay battered and bent on the floor. Grabbing Clara's hand even tighter, Percy, with his other hand clenched around his gun, walked in to the room. "Oh no," he said, "oh no."

He lowered his gun and walked into the room. Aurelius had clearly torn it apart looking for something. It didn't take Clara long to figure out what. There was a nameplate screwed onto the door. It read '1ST OFFICER J. VAN DER HOORN' in gold lettering. "Was this one of the men who was allowed to carry a weapon?" Clara asked Percy, her voice quiet and afraid.

"Jeroen van der Hoorn was our first officer," said Percy, his voice flat. "He wasn't the captain but was as much a leader of men. I never saw him carry a gun; there was never any reason for it. But I knew he had clearance to use one, and having met him, it's quite likely he'd have had the biggest gun he could get his hands on."

"Well," said Clara, his office certainly doesn't have one, not anymore."

Percy ran outside, opposite van der Hoorn's office was another officer, with another nameplate. This one read '2ND OFFICER P. PATRICK' and the door it was attached to was very much untouched, with dust settling in the edges between door and doorframe.

"If van der Hoorn didn't have a gun, Patrick would have," said Percy, "and his room's untouched." He grabbed Clara's hand again. "We have to get to the cockpit, right now."

"But Aurelius is probably armed," she said, "are you sure that's wise?"

"We're armed too," he said, smiling, and Clara gripped her gun, feeling safer as her sweaty hands stuck to the cool metal, "and if we can get there and he isn't there, we can use the PA system to warn Izzy and the Doctor. If he's not in the cockpit, he'd be more likely to look for the Doctor than us."

"Are you sure you're not really the senior officer?" asked Clara, "I wouldn't have thought a technician to be a noble warrior."

"Of course I'm the senior officer," laughed Percy, "just don't mention that in front of my examiner. Now, let's get going."

Clara nodded and hand in hand, the two broke into a run, bound for the cockpit.

* * *

Percy and Clara reached the archway leading to the cockpit and paused for a moment to catch their breath, walking the last few yards in case Aurelius was inside. Standing right behind the archway, Percy raised his gun and turned to face Clara. "Wait for my lead," he whispered, before jumping into the archway, gun pointed firmly ahead. When he did not fire, he indicated for Clara to follow him, and they walked into a very much deserted cockpit.

There were no signs that anyone had been there since breakfast. "Sit on the chair and cover me," Percy told Clara and she obeyed, sitting facing backwards on the captain's chair, gun raised over the top of the chair and her head poking out the side, looking into the empty archway. Percy, standing in front of the chair, reached for the microphone that connected up to the PA system. He tested it, knocking on it with his finger. The tapping echoed throughout the cockpit, and confident it was still in working order, Percy spoke very clearly into it. "Izzy, Doctor, this is Percy. Aurelius is armed again. Clara's still with me."

When he was done, he turned stood next to Clara. "Aurelius would have heard that, wouldn't he?" she asked.

"Yes,"

"So now he definitely knows where we are, doesn't he?" she asked, and the room suddenly felt like it had halved its temperature.

"Yes," called out a voice from behind the archway. Aurelius ran from the corridor into the cockpit. Percy and Clara both fired on him, but Aurelius had dropped to the floor and rolled into the centre of the cockpit. As soon as he had completed his roll, he aimed his gun and Percy and shot him in the chest. Before either Percy or Clara had a chance to react, he had moved to face her, shooting her right in the head.

As the blast hit her, Clara felt a wave of pain, followed by numbness flow through her body. She tried to move but couldn't, and instead slinked off the chair and onto the floor, on top of Percy, who too had collapsed.

Uncoiling a large length of rope that he had hung across his shoulder, Aurelius, with rather gentle hands considering his rough appearance, bound Percy and Clara's feet, and then proceeded to tie their hands behind their backs. When he had done this, he placed them back to back with another and tied some more rope around their waists. Clara was beginning to get feeling back in her body, but was quick to realise she was fully immobilised.

"Why did you not kill us?" asked Percy, who too was recovering from his stunning.

"I thought we could all do with a little fun," said Aurelius. He reached for the PA system. "Doctor, Doctor, this is Aurelius, remember me?" he said, a smile across his face. "I have your little friend here, and your brother too Miss Darlington. If you want them, you'll have to come to me, and I'll spare them for your life Doctor. That seems a fair trade, don't you think? Also, I know I can't hear your reply, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what you want to say. Here's my rebuttal. Goodbye Doctor."

Aurelius walked to another part of the console. He pulled off a key from around his neck. Percy saw what he was doing. "Aurelius no, stop it!" he called.

"A little test of faith, if you will," said Aurelius, and he began to laugh. Taking the key off from around his neck, he placed it in a keyhole in the console. When he turned the key, a big red button began to rise out of the console. Rubbing his hands, Aurelius pressed down on the button. A red light on the ceiling of the cockpit began to start glowing.

"_Warning, warning_," said an electronic voice which rang throughout the ship, "_Ship auto-destruct initiated. 30 minutes until detonation and counting. _ _30 minutes until detonation and counting._"

"A little clichéd I know," said Aurelius, "but beggars can't be choosers."


	5. Chapter 5

"No," said the Doctor, "no, no, no, no!" He kept pacing up and down the same short stretch of corridor, his hand on his head. "Aurelius you can't!" he shouted.

Isadora watched him, lip trembling. "Doctor, what are we going to do?" she asked.

"What can we do?"

"Think! You fixed the engines; you must be able to do something."

"I can't Isadora, fixing engines is one thing, self-destruct systems are another. Even if we knew where the system operated from, and I'm guessing you don't, those sort of things are usually deadlocked, so I can't sonic it, and even with just my hands, it'll be booby-trapped to the teeth and take a lot longer than half an hour to defuse."

"_29 minutes until detonation and counting."_

"I'm going to have to talk with him," said the Doctor, lowering his arms and swaying them in frustration.

"He'll kill you the moment he sees you, and then blow us up anyway. He's got my brother prisoner Doctor," pleaded Isadora, "and Clara too, now please think of something."

"No, you're right," said the Doctor looking down the corridor. "If I go there it'll just mean a sooner death for me. But what if I hand myself over as a distraction, while you escape? Four deaths is better than five isn't it?"

"Doctor, no way," said Isadora, "I can't allow you to do that."

"You're not my boss Isadora," said the Doctor, "I don't have a boss, not anymore. Jump into the airlock and get out while you can." The Doctor paused and then realised what he had said. He jumped in the air and kicked his legs. "Oh yes, yes, yes, yes," he said, running his hands through his hair. "Why didn't I think of it before?"

"What, think of what?"

"The airlock," exclaimed the Doctor, "we can both get out using the airlock."

"But Doctor, what about the others?"

The Doctor was too excited to pay any notice. "Can you deadlock the airlocks externally, like from the cockpit?"

"No, it has to be done locally, but Doctor-"

"And Aurelius is most likely going to stay in the cockpit, yes?"

"Yes, but-"

"So we can escape without Aurelius being able to stop us in any way, providing we don't use the airlock's intercom, which we won't,"

"Doctor, what about Percy and Clara?" asked Isadora, loud enough to interrupt the Doctor's train of thought. "If Aurelius sees us leaving, and he'll definitely know when one of the airlocks gets opened if he's in the cockpit, he'll likely kill them on the spot, disable the self-destruct and fly away unharmed."

"I see, so the self-destruct can be cancelled locally then?"

"Yes, but we can't get into the cockpit remember? Even if we go in, all guns blazing he'll be in a perfect defensive position. Two people wouldn't stand a chance."

"That and you'll never see me firing one of those death machines," grimaced the Doctor. "But never mind that, I have a new and better plan. You see, my ship, she's not like normal ships. If I can get out to her myself I can get her to materialise back in here and set you all free."

"But how Doctor, I don't understand."

"_28 minutes until detonation and counting."_

The Doctor was pacing again, chewing on the knuckle of his right forefinger. "Yes, yes, this is a very good plan indeed. I think Aurelius has a very good, strong grudge against me. That in itself is as clear as day. But the way he's talked about you and your brother, it seems like he couldn't really care less about you."

"Well that's comforting," scoffed Isadora.

"You heard him though," said the Doctor, "he said he was just going to kill you and move on, as though you were nothing to him, but not a bad nothing, like a sort of nothing-nothing."

"Doctor what are you talking about?"

"Isadora," said the Doctor, placing his hand on her shoulder, "I have a plan, but I'm going to need your help. Do you trust me?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No, but do you trust me?"

Isadora bit her lip. "Yes," she said, "yes I do."

"Then I'll need you to play along with me. First, take me to the airlock where Clara and I came aboard."

"Why do we need to go there?"

"I need my spacesuit."

"Doctor, what are you thinking of doing?"

"Walk first, talk later," said the Doctor, and Isadora began walking towards the _Armstrong_'s Airlock 2.

* * *

Outside the airlock, the Doctor began putting on his orange spacesuit. "I hate wearing this thing," he said to himself.

"Doctor, what are we going to do?" asked Isadora.

"_25 minutes until detonation and counting._"

"Isadora, I'm going to have to leave you, but I'll be helping you, but I'll need you to help me help you by leaving you."

"Run that past me one more time."

The Doctor paused. "How quick do you reckon you can get to the cockpit?"

"A few minutes, why?"

"A few minutes? Well you'd better try and stick to that schedule. I want you to run there as quickly as you can, don't worry about being out of breath, that'll only look more convincing."

"What do you mean 'more convincing?'"

"When you get near the cockpit, I want you to wait a reasonable distance for my signal."

"What signal will that be?"

"Me leaving the airlock and the ship," smiled the Doctor, his spacesuit fully complete sans the helmet, which he held in his arms. "You'll be able to hear it from the cockpit hopefully. So while Aurelius does his nut about me leaving, you come bursting into the cockpit before he has a chance to properly react." The Doctor took Isadora's gun and kicked it down the corridor. "Good riddance. Now, tell him I backstabbed you, stole your gun and took off for my own safety. If he reacts how he should and how I really hope he does, he'll cancel the destruction of the ship, and come chasing after me."

"Leaving me free to free the others and escape?" asked Isadora hopefully.

"No, he'll most likely capture you first and then just leave you to die with Percy and Clara. But I don't think he'll kill you on the spot. He'll be too busy with me for that."

"Do you think he'll chase you?"

"We'll see. But first and foremost, I must ask again; do you trust me?"

"Yes,"

"Will you do as I told you?"

"Yes,"

"Then get going, and remember, wait for my signal."

"Yes Doctor, good luck."

"You too Isadora," said the Doctor. He put on his helmet and walked calmly into the airlock chamber and sat down. He saw Isadora turn and run off. "How am I going to count three minutes in here?" he asked himself, scanning the chamber for a clock, which it was very much lacking in.

"_24 minutes until detonation and counting."_

"Well, it's better than nothing," he said, and he looked casually out of the window.

* * *

When she was almost within sight of the cockpit's archway, Isadora stopped running and caught her breath. Hurry up Doctor, she thought. As if he were reading her mind, which as far as she knew he could have been, she heard the electronic voice call out to the whole ship.

"_21 minutes until detonation and counting"_

Well there we are, thought Isadora, I said three minutes and that's what it took me. The same voice started up again, this time reading a different message."

"_Airlock 2 has been opened. Airlock 2 has been opened._"

Couldn't he have given me a few more seconds? Sighing deeply, Isadora began to run again, running straight into the cockpit. Aurelius had his gun pointed straight at her head. "What is it?" he thundered, "what have you done?"

"It was the Doctor," panted Isadora. "He- he tricked me. He stole my gun and escaped. I couldn't stop him, I- I- I-," she said, completely out of breath. At least it would make her look more convincing, she thought.

"No," said Clara, sitting on the floor. "He wouldn't, not the Doctor."

"I'm telling you," said Isadora, looking at Clara with fearful eyes. She wasn't going to even risk the chance of Aurelius finding out what she and the Doctor were up to, so as long as he was in the room. Until then Percy and Clara would have to be kept in the dark.

"So, the Timelord shows his true face then," said Aurelius. Scratching his chin, he raised his gun and fired it, hitting Isadora square in the chest. "I'll show him mine." Aurelius tied up Isadora on the floor, against the back of the captain's chair. "The Doctor may think he's won, but I'll show him the true price of his victory. You," he said, turning to Clara, "I can tell you love the Doctor. How does it feel to be betrayed by him like this? Does it hurt? Let's find out of the Doctor has any love left in him to return to you. Let's see how he feels when he has to sit and watch you get blown into a million tiny pieces."

"No," said Clara, tears pouring down her cheeks, "please, no."

"_20 minutes until detonation and counting._"

"So you're still going to blow us up?" asked Isadora.

Aurelius paused, and Isadora realiser her mistake. "So that's his plan, is it?" He knelt down and grabbed her jaw.

"Hey, leave her alone," called Percy.

"Silence," Aurelius called to Percy, shooting him again with his gun. Percy's head was thrown into the back of Clara's, leaving him unconscious and her writhing in pain. Aurelius looked at Isadora with his piercing eyes. "Do you think me stupid? Turn off the self-destruct and go gallivanting off after the Doctor, only to have him zap me with his Timelord warship and come back here, armed with that stupid screwdriver of his so he can let himself in, save your worthless skins and go flying off like the hero he thinks he is?"

Isadora said nothing, and stared defiantly at Aurelius. He was a fair way off the mark, but hopefully her actions would suggest otherwise.

"Then he is as arrogant as he is warped," said Aurelius. "Not only am I going to make sure this ship gets ripped to shreds in a matter of minutes, but I'm going to make sure he couldn't even get back on board if he wanted. When I stole his screwdriver, I had a chance to play around with it. That's how I was able to outwit him when he thought he had me back in the airlock. I know it can't open deadlocked seals, so I'm going to go out now and deadlock all the doors. If he's as gallant as you all seem to think he is, he'll be banging on those doors until he's dead too. Either way, I win and he loses. It's just up to him whether he can bear to live with himself anymore or not." Aurelius stood up and began to walk out of the cockpit. "I'm just going to fix those doors. I'll be back soon, and I cannot wait to see the looks on your faces as your time runs out."

* * *

On the surface of Ganymede, the Doctor made his way away from the _Armstrong_ as fast as he could. He knew what he had to do; the plan was all fully formed in his mind. The difficult part wasn't so much actually the doing, but the hoping that Aurelius would react in the right way to the Doctor's disappearance. What the Doctor wanted Aurelius to do was to cancel the self-destruct system and leave the ship and its occupants unharmed and leave the moon. Whether he gave chase to the Doctor or not was not important; the Doctor had a ship that could travel time and space and easily get rid of Aurelius should he have to. What he didn't want Aurelius to do was to kill his hostages, by either blowing up the ship or lasering them on his way out. What the Doctor really hoped at this point was that Aurelius, for all his anger at the Doctor and the Timelords, would at least show mercy to Percy, Isadora and especially to Clara. All his talk of death and destruction had made the Doctor realise just how far-reaching the effects of the Time War had been, and the Doctor, as the sole survivor of the War, was now intent on making sure no more blood was split, at least not today.

The Doctor turned around and looked at the _Armstrong_. There was no way of telling what was going on inside, which did little to improve the Doctor's confidence. Living in ignorance would have to be the plan for the time being, he told himself, and he started moving again in the direction of the large rock that sat between the _Armstrong_ and the TARDIS. Reaching the rock again, he looked behind him at the big ship. He had left 21 minutes before it was scheduled to blow up, and he had no idea how much time had passed between then and now. Certainly no more than a few minutes, he thought, pausing by the rock to catch his breath. When he had recovered he walked around the rock, still glancing over his shoulder at the _Armstrong_ until it was totally obscured. By this point the TARDIS was sitting ahead of him, so he continued his march across the rocky surface of the moon, skipping the last several yards with the lower gravity propelling him towards his beloved blue box. The Doctor had the TARDIS' key held securely in his tightly-clenched glove, and opening his palm, walked up to the box, stroking it with one hand as the other placed the key firmly in the keyhole. The Doctor opened the TARDIS' door and walked inside the ship.

Shutting the door, the Doctor took off his helmet and gloves, but not the rest of his spacesuit. Placing the helmet and gloves on the console, he flexed his fingers and began racing around the TARDIS, pulling levers and twisting dials. "Well Doctor," he said, "time for a bit of precision flying. Are you ready old girl?"

As if in response, the TARDIS began emitting a series of harsh and frantic noises.

"Ok, ok," said the Doctor, "I take it back, you're not that old. Are you ready sexy?" Playing with more of the TARDIS' many controls, the Doctor began to laugh excitably as ship began to roar into life, ready to travel as per the Doctor's present requirements. "I'll take that as a yes," said the Doctor, one part of his mind still very much focused on saving Clara and the others, but another keen to be back in his TARDIS and ready for the thrill of adventure. "Let's have some fun."


	6. Chapter 6

The TARDIS materialised inside Aurelius' ship; the _T-59P_ and the Doctor calmly waltzed out into what appeared to be the ship's kitchen. In one hand he clutched a pair of binoculars; in the other he held a cricket bat. "Drat," he said to himself, examining his surroundings. "Coming in uninvited was rude enough, but couldn't it have hurt to pop up somewhere more fitting, like maybe a cargo bay of sorts?" he asked the TARDIS. As if in response, the TARDIS' door slammed shut, dust blowing out into the kitchen. "Well," said the Doctor, "beggars can't be choosers."

The Doctor had travelled back in time by one hour as well as relocating himself across the moon, and was in no great rush as he found the part of the ship he was looking for. Standing in the cockpit of the _T-59P_, the Doctor had a clear view of the _Armstrong_, including most importantly; her own cockpit. Leaving the cricket bat resting on the flight console, the Doctor looked through the binoculars at the _Armstrong_'s cockpit. There wasn't anyone inside there, but that wasn't the Doctor's concern at present. His concern was being able to see clearly into the cockpit, and that was no problem whatsoever.

Leaving the binoculars on one of the chairs in the cockpit, the Doctor picked up his cricket bat, moved into a batting stance and demonstrated a few mock defensive shots with the bat. Convinced the bat was suitable for his needs, although cricket etiquette was nowhere on his list of current concerns and his use for the bat was far from conventional, the Doctor wedged the bat under his arm and began to walk out of the cockpit.

The _T-59P_ was a lot smaller than the _Armstrong_ and it did not take the Doctor long to find his way to the aft of the ship, where the engine bays sat. The engine bay was separated from the rest of the ship by a reinforced door, which was no match for the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver. "Discourteous, I know," said the Doctor to himself, "but desperate times call for desperate measures." Opening the heavy door, the Doctor walked into the engine bay, gently swaying his cricket bat as he did so. Standing in front of one of the ship's engines, the Doctor raised his cricket bat. "I do so dislike weapons," he muttered, before swinging the bat as hard as he could into the engine. There was an echoing thud and the bat sank into the metal, denting it inwards. The Doctor had never been an advocate for violence, and normally would name destruction of property as one of the lesser uses for a cricket bat, but this was a rare exception; a chance to teach Aurelius Aurelio a lesson and end his reign of piracy.

The Doctor removed the bat and gave another swing, this time at an important looking grille. Sparks flew when the Doctor hit this, and the bars of the grill shattered; some falling into the inner workings of the engines and other falling to the floor. The Doctor kept the bat in the new hole he had made and gave it a few good shoves, hoping to cause as much destruction as he could. He did this to all of the engines in the bay, and was almost enjoying it, in spite of himself. If we get out of this, he thought, I might have to take up some kind of combat fitness, or at least look for a better way of venting 900 years' worth of feelings and frustrations. When he was done, he wiped away the sweat that had formed on his brow and walked back to the cockpit.

Back in the cockpit, the Doctor, still not done with his destruction, began smashing up as many controls as he could find with the cricket bat. The cockpit's control panel was not as sturdily built as the big engines were, and the cricket bat quickly ripped through the panel as though it were made of tin foil. Sparks flew everywhere every time the bat broke through another screen and smashed another button into the panel until the Doctor's destructive thirst was quenched. Placing the cricket bat back down against the now warped and bent panel, the Doctor picked up his binoculars again and looked into the cockpit of the _Armstrong_. This time, there were two figures standing in the cockpit. The Doctor adjusted the focus on the binoculars and the faces of Percy and Clara came into focus. The Doctor could see Percy standing at the front of the cockpit. He appeared to be talking into a microphone. Then, Aurelius walked into the cockpit and fired his gun at Clara and Percy, who both fell to the floor. Back inside the _T-59P_ a vein on the Doctor's forehead began to protrude slightly and he grimaced. He had suddenly remembered just how much he hated violence, as well as the situation he was currently stuck in.

Inside the _Armstrong_ Aurelius knelt down below the window, so the Doctor couldn't see him, but he assumed and hoped Aurelius was merely making prisoners of Clara and Percy. When Aurelius rose again, the Doctor could see he was talking to the others, and relief flowed through him. So they were just being held prisoner. He had feared that Aurelius may have killed them during the ambush. He saw Aurelius walk to the front of the cockpit and press a button. A red light began to shine on and off, filling and then relieving the cockpit of its deep glow. This was when he started the self-destruct, though the Doctor. He continued to keep a close eye on the goings-on of the cockpit, even though he knew that Isadora wasn't supposed to appear for another 9 or so minutes.

When Isadora did arrive in the cockpit, the Doctor watched as Aurelius shot her too. When Aurelius was bent over, presumably tying her up, the Doctor averted his gaze, instead focusing on what was going on outside the _Armstrong_. On the surface, on the other side of the ship, he could see a lone figure in an orange spacesuit walking away from the ship. The Doctor pulled away the binoculars and looked at the orange spacesuit he was wearing; the same one the man on the moon was wearing. In all his years of time travel, one thing that never ceased to amaze him was being able to look at himself in the past. He could never interact with this Doctor on the moon, but merely observe him, but it was still always something that made the Doctor think in wonder.

Putting aside his reflections on the marvels of time travel, the Doctor began inspecting the cockpit of the _Armstrong_ once again. Aurelius was still there and talking to his prisoners. The Doctor had never bothered too much with the art of lip-reading, considering it nosy and not in his best interests, so he couldn't see what Aurelius was saying, but he could tell by reading the man's face that he was speaking passionately about it, whatever it was. The Doctor continued watching, and when he saw Aurelius prepare to leave the room, his hearts started racing again. He kept looking into the room to make sure Aurelius didn't reappear, but a quick scan of the other windows along the ship soon told him that Aurelius was currently prowling through the corridors of the _Armstrong_. Putting down the binoculars, the Doctor ran out of the cockpit, bound for the kitchens and his TARDIS; ready for another quick journey through space and time.

* * *

"_18 minutes until detonation and counting_."

"So after all that, the Doctor just took off and left us here?" asked Percy.

"No, he's going to come back and save us," said Clara. "I know he will, he always does."

"Aurelius has gone to lock all the doors to the ship Clara," said Percy, "even if he wanted to save us he can't."

For that, Clara had no reply, so she lowered her head. Percy was right. It was all over. Aurelius had won and everyone knew it. As she stared at the ground, the minutes seemed to flow by.

"_17 minutes until detonation and counting_."

"_16 minutes until detonation and counting_."

"_15 minutes until detonation and counting_."

Clara was soon interrupted from her morbid thoughts by a whooshing noise, one she knew too well. She immediately cocked her head upwards and laughed. The noise too caught the attention of Percy and Isadora, and all three of them looked up as the TARDIS materialised in the cockpit. When it had finished its travel, the door opened and out walked the Doctor, dressed in his spacesuit and looking very happy to see the three prisoners sitting on the floor. "Yes," he said, "that went smoother than expected. Where's Aurelius?"

Percy and Isadora looked too shocked to answer, but Clara, blinking back tears was more used to the concept of time travel than them, and was not completed fazed to the point of sitting there open-mouthed and silent. "He's gone off to try and lock you out." She looked him up and down. "It seems he didn't do a very good job. Are you going to get us off here or not?"

The Doctor knelt down and kissed her on the forehead. "Of course silly, I'm sorry for leaving you." He untied her and then untied the Darlington siblings. When they were freed they kept staring at the TARDIS, baffled by the concept of there being a police box in the middle of their cockpit. "It's a time machine," he explained casually.

"_14 minutes until detonation and counting_."

"Clara, be a dear and show our guests inside would you? Now, before I forget," he added, walking over to the self-destruct button on the cockpit's console and pressing it hard and firm.

"_Self-destruct sequence cancelled. Repeat, self-destruct sequence cancelled._"

"A bit less dramatic than the old 'five, four, three, two, one', but better safe than sorry," said the Doctor, strolling towards the TARDIS. "Yes, it's bigger on the inside," he said tiredly to Percy and Isadora as he walked past their bewildered faces en-route to the centre console. "Now, let's get off here. Don't worry," he added, "it's only temporary, all part of the plan."

* * *

The TARDIS materialised on the surface of Ganymede again, this time directly in front of the cockpit. The Doctor opened the door and looked out. He couldn't see what was going on inside the cockpit, just its roof, but if someone inside the cockpit were to look out the window, the TARDIS would be in clear view. "Perfect," he said, putting on his helmet and stepping out onto the surface of the moon once again. "Stay here everyone," he told Clara, Isadora and Percy, "I shan't be long."

The Doctor walked to the closest airlock and stood right by the door.

"_16 minutes until detonation and counting_."

Good, though the Doctor, right on time. He tried using his screwdriver on the door. Thankfully Aurelius hadn't got around to deadlocking this door yet, so the door swung upon and the Doctor stepped inside, shutting the door and locking it with his screwdriver. He did the same to the internal door, deadlocking them against any interference Aurelius could attempt. He then raised the screwdriver in the air and the room began to pressurise. When the green light on the roof turned on, the Doctor removed his helmet. He sat and waited, drumming on his helmet to pass the time.

"_15 minutes until detonation and counting_."

When Aurelius made his way to the airlock, his deadlocking efforts nearly at an end, the Doctor greeted him with a smile and a wave. Aurelius sneered. "Doctor, I was just about to lock you out, what are you doing in there?"

"I was waiting for you Aurelius," smiled the Doctor. "It's all over."

"For you maybe," said Aurelius, "You could have killed me when you had the chance."

"Contrary to your expectations of my species, I'm not a murderer Aurelius."

"Well I am, and I must say you've made this easier than it should be." He pressed the button that normally would have opened the airlock and flushed the Doctor into space. Nothing happened.

"I deadlocked that door," said the Doctor casually.

"Clever you," said Aurelius, pulling out his gun and pressing the button that would normally have opened the door between the airlock and the corridor. Once again nothing happened.

"I locked that one too," said the Doctor. "If you'll forgive me saying, I don't think I really made anything easier for you."

"Maybe not, but I can still watch your life come to a pitiful end if you sit in here for a few more minutes."

"_14 minutes until detonation and counting_."

"14 minutes to be exact," continued Aurelius. "If you try and leave the ship your friends die with me. If you try and come aboard I shoot you and we all blow up anyway. Face it Doctor, you've lost."

"_Self-destruct sequence cancelled. Repeat, self-destruct sequence cancelled._"

Aurelius' face suddenly lost all its colour. The Doctor just smiled. "I'd say there's mischief afoot in the cockpit Aurelius."

Aurelius, forgetting all reason, ran off in the direction of the cockpit. The Doctor nonchalantly put his helmet back on and opened the airlock, stepping back out on the surface of the moon.

* * *

Aurelius sprinted through the corridors of the _Armstrong_, cursing the Doctor and cursing himself for letting the Doctor get the better of him. He was not going to let this Timelord win. As he ran towards the cockpit, a thought crossed his mind, had he just left the Doctor alone in the corridor where he could easily get into the ship? Aurelius tried not to think about it. He was the one with a weapon, and he knew enough of the Doctor to know that he was merciless; foolish and merciless, and he was not the sort of man who would use a weapon. It had clearly not been his downfall before, but he, Aurelius Aurelio, would make damn sure today would be the day the Doctor's pacifism and mercy cost him dearly.

But why had the self-destruct cancelled? The Doctor had the nerve to joke about it, but he couldn't have had anything to do with it, could he? It was probably one of those others that were tied up in the cockpit. One of them probably broke free of their bonds and decided to act the hero. They would pay for that dearly, thought Aurelius, changing the setting on his ray gun from firing stunning blasts to firing mortal blasts. No more second chances.

Upon running into the cockpit, Aurelius found he was the only person in the room. The ropes used to tie up the others were lying on the ground. Aurelius gave out a yell of frustration. As he moved to the front of the cockpit, snorting with rage, Aurelius looked out the front window and saw a blue box sitting on the surface of the moon in front of the _Armstrong_. Gritting his teeth, Aurelius looked at the box. Just in front of it stood four figures, including one in an orange spacesuit, clutching a helmet. It was undeniably the Doctor and his friends. They waved towards the ship and Aurelius went berserk. He turned around and began throwing punches at the captain's chair until his fists were bloody and raw. Composing himself, but still apoplectic inside, Aurelius marched off towards Airlock 1, where his own spacesuit was hanging on the corridor wall. He was going to settle this once and for all.

On the surface of the moon, the Doctor turned to the others. "Fancy one more quick trip?" he asked.

* * *

Dressed in his own black spacesuit and clutching a more compact helmet with a small visor, also in black, Aurelius opened the door to Airlock 1. As the door opened he walked inside and sat down. Before he had a chance to put on his helmet and eject himself, he heard a whirring that made him feel sick inside. He looked back towards the corridor and there stood the Doctor, waving his sonic screwdriver and looking very pleased for himself. "I've locked the doors Aurelius; it's all over, for real this time." His face grew more serious. "There'll be no more second chances. I can't allow it, not to you, nor anyone else. I can only apologise so many times for the horrors the Time War caused, including the destruction of your people, and I'll apologise again now, but it won't ever change things. We're both casualties of the Time War Aurelius; the last of our kind. I've dealt with my sorrows in a million and one different ways since the day the war ended. Not all of them have been in my best interest or that of anyone else, but I'm learning Aurelius, I'm always learning. I go through time and space, righting wrongs and helping those in need. I don't do it to make amends for the past, but to improve the future. That's where you've led yourself astray Aurelius, and it ends here. I'm sorry."

"So," said Aurelius, "what are you going to do with me? Kill me? Hold me prisoner here on this ship?"

"No, I'm going to let you go. Best you put your helmet on."

Aurelius did so, and when the Doctor was satisfied he opened the airlock. Aurelius walked out of the airlock and onto the moon, not acknowledging the Doctor as he walked off in the direction of the _T-59P_.

The Doctor smiled and made his way to the cockpit.

* * *

The TARDIS stood in the centre of the cockpit again. The Doctor walked around it upon entering the room and walked up to the console, where Percy stood, Isadora behind him in the captain's chair and Clara resting against the TARDIS.

"Who said you could sit in the chair?" asked Percy, laughing.

"I did," said Isadora flatly, "right now."

"Suit yourself," said Percy, "but if you're sitting in the chair it means you have to fly the ship.

Isadora stood up. "Fine, take it if you want."

Percy smiled. During their three years stranded on Ganymede he had taken a greater interest in learning how to pilot the ship should it ever be repaired than his sister ever did.

"Well Percy, if you start her up she should be all ready," said the Doctor.

Percy flipped the necessary switches and pressed the necessary buttons. At the back of the _Armstrong_, the engines, long dormant began to roar into life and the great spaceship slowly began to lift off the ground. When it had gathered enough height, Percy pushed a large, important looking lever and the ship stopped its vertical ascent and began to move forward. Taking control of the ship's yoke, Percy began to pilot the ship away from Ganymede, the _T-59P_ becoming just a small black blip on the surface of the moon.

"Thank you so much Doctor," said Isadora, hugging the Doctor, who flinched a bit. "And you too Clara," she added, hugging Clara.

"Yeah," said Percy, not taking his eyes away from the window. "Thanks heaps guys, we owe you our lives and so much more."

"Don't worry about it," said the Doctor, as he and Clara began to walk into the TARDIS, "I said something to Aurelius just before, and I'll say it again now. I don't go helping people to make amends for the past, but to improve the future, and to you Darlingtons, I hope the future is very bright indeed."

The Doctor walked into the TARDIS and was about to shut the door when Isadora caught his attention. "Doctor," she said, "what if Aurelius comes back after us?"

"Somehow I can't see that happening for a while," said the Doctor with an all-knowing smile. He closed the TARDIS door and soon-after the ship began to dematerialise, leaving Percy and Isadora alone once again, but closer to getting home than they had been for a long, long time.

* * *

Having stripped off his spacesuit upon re-entering the _T-59P_; Aurelius made his way to the cockpit. He'd seen the _Armstrong_ take off, and there was nothing he'd rather have enjoyed more than taking off after it and blasting it to pieces with the ship's laser cannon. That'd teach the Doctor a thing or two about mercy.

When he reached the cockpit he saw it was in total disarray. The console was smashed to pieces, a cricket bat resting against it, flecks of paint stuck on the chipped wood. Above it was a note. It read 'Dear Aurelius, the engine bay's not in much better condition. Consider this an example of my mercy, The Doctor.'

Aurelius crumpled up the note and walked off, seething.

* * *

**The End**


End file.
